Upcoming Exhibitions

Joseph Clayes III Gallery

Within the Context of Time: May-ling Martinez and Coralys Carter

May 2–July 25, 2026

Opening Reception: Friday, May 1, 2026, 5:30–7:30 PM

Artist Talk: Friday, May 1, 5:30 PM; free with advance registration

The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library is pleased to present Within the Context of Time, a two-person exhibition bringing together new and recent works by May-ling Martinez and Coralys Carter. On view from May 2 through July 25, 2026, the exhibition explores memory, time, and family history through two distinct yet deeply resonant artistic practices. 

Neither Martinez nor Carter makes the personal explicit in their work, yet a constant current runs beneath the surface of each practice, surfacing through close attention to materials, references, and thinking. Both artists share an affinity for the power and slippage of memory,  exploring how our recollections shape us yet can also betray us, falter, or expand into something new. Family and one's own constructed narrative, the first shapers of consciousness, are strong influences in both bodies of work. 

While Martinez uses symmetry and balance to shape her assemblages and drawings, Carter plays purposefully with off-kilter constructions and hand-spun details. Both reframe everyday and found objects — hair, baskets, workaday tools, brushes, collected photos and diagrams — as totems with past lives, suffused with an eerie power. Evocative, mysterious, beautiful, and often melancholy, these two artists create frameworks from which one can begin to ponder the edges of the human experience: the vastness of time and memory alongside the mundanity of daily life. 

About the Artists 

May-ling Martinez is a Puerto Rican visual artist whose work spans mixed-media sculpture, conceptual drawings, and site-specific installations. Combining pre-fabricated objects with her own handcrafted pieces, Martinez creates art that fuses the personal and social, the everyday and the enigmatic. 

Her sculptures and works on paper act as metaphors for the human desire to understand the world around us—our personal experiences, collective connections, and the existential questions that bind us. Recent projects delve into the intersection of human nature and animism, merging scientific exploration with cultural rituals. This fusion of ancestral technologies and iconography results in works that challenge our perceptions of identity, nature, spirituality and personal needs. 

Martinez holds an MFA in Sculpture from San Diego State University and a BA in Communications from Sacred Heart University in Puerto Rico. She currently resides in San Diego, California, and has exhibited at venues including the California Center for the Arts, Quint ONE, CEART in Baja California and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (MCASD). Her latest site-specific installation is currently featured in the Mirror Mirror exhibit at San Diego International Airport. 

Coralys Carter Coralys Carter is a sculptor and weaver living in eastern Tennessee. She recently received  an MFA in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, and is furthering her material exploration into the concept of bodies rooted in spaces and places rooted in bodies. Coralys lends flesh to memory. Through sculpture, etchings, and textiles, Carter contends with the places memories reside: in our objects, in our homes, and in ourselves.  

Carter considers time as a perpetual point of access within our bodies—inviting others to inhabit her memories with her in the present. Carter folds time, rendering it as physical as the people that slipped through the Midwest via labor, the Great Migration, and the circumstances that brought her into being.  

Recent residencies and honors include the Longenecker Roth Artist in Resident Fellow with Tanya Aguiñiga, the Black Studies Project Fellowship, the Russell Grant, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop’s SIP Fellowship, Textile Art Center’s WIP Residency, and Processing Foundation’s Processing Fellowship. 

Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery

Día de las Madres: Mother's Day Pop-Up Exhibition

May 8–10, 2026

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 9, 12–8 PM

Open Call for Submissions!

Submission deadline: April 22. Free to submit! 

Every year around Mother's Day, the Athenaeum Art Center (AAC) opens its doors to the community for a festive, bilingual pop-up exhibition that honors mothers and maternal figures across cultures. Drawing on the traditions of Día de las Madres, rooted in Mexican cultural heritage and the spirit of the broader Mother's Day weekend, this annual event brings together local artists, families, and neighbors for an afternoon and evening of art, music, craft demonstrations, and connection. 

The exhibition showcases artwork submitted by community members and local artists, all responding to themes of motherhood. 

Past events have featured paintings, sculptures, prints, mixed-media works, and "fridge art,” embracing every level of artistic experience. The event culminates in an opening reception with live mariachi music, printmaking demonstrations, and opportunities to meet the artists. 

The AAC's Mother's Day pop-up is a community celebration rooted in place, in Barrio Logan, and in the stories that mothers carry and pass on. It is bilingual at its core, welcoming Spanish- and English-speaking visitors alike, and free and open to the public.

This event is generously supported by the ResMed Foundation. 

We invite artists of all backgrounds and experience levels to submit work for our annual Día de las Madres pop-up exhibition. This exhibition celebrates maternal figures and their lived experiences across cultures, generations, and languages. 

Theme: What does it mean to mother? What is maternal love and how is it expressed? We want to see art that thinks through these questions. Bilingual, bicultural, and border-crossing perspectives are especially encouraged. 

Who can submit? 

• Open to all artists living or working in the San Diego–Tijuana region. 

• Open to all experience levels! “Amateur” work is enthusiastically accepted. 

• Youth submissions welcome (with parent/guardian consent). 

What to submit? 

• Paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, any 2-D art 

• Sculpture and 3-D work 

• Mixed media and textile work 

• Works on paper, artist books, zines, etc. 

Guidelines 

• All work submitted must be ready to hang or display.  

• Works must be inspired or connected to the exhibition theme. 

• Up to two (2) works per artist are accepted.  

• This form must be submitted: https://bit.ly/mama2026 

• The form requests JPEG images of your work along with your name, contact info, socials or website, title of work, medium, dimensions, and a brief statement about your work and connection to the theme.  

Questions? Email lmartinez@ljathenaeum.org 

Key Dates 

Submission deadline: April 22 
Artist notification: April 24 
Artwork drop-off: April 28–May 2 
Exhibition opening reception: May 9, 12–8 PM 
Exhibition days: May 8–10 
Artwork pickup: May 11–26 

Submission is free; there is no entry fee. Artwork may be offered for sale at the artist’s discretion; the Athenaeum Art Center does not take commission on sales made at this event. 

Submissions & Exhibition Guidelines 

1. Eligibility 

• Open to artists of all ages, skill levels, and backgrounds in the San Diego-Tijuana region 

• Each artist may submit up to two (2) works 

• Work must be original and created by the submitting artist 

• Work must be directly related to the exhibition theme 

• No AI work accepted 

2. Artwork Requirements 

• All 2-D work must be ready to hang. This means framed or mounted with proper hanging hardware attached, OR stretched canvas with wire/D-rings on the back. Work not ready to hang will not be accepted.   

• 3-D work must be stable and self-supporting or include a base/pedestal. Coordinate with the gallery coordinator if you require special display arrangements. 

• Maximum dimensions: 60 inches in any direction (width or height). 

• Work must be in exhibition-ready condition: clean, undamaged, and stable. 

• Work that requires electrical power, specialized lighting, or sound must be disclosed at time of submission and approved in advance. 

3. Artwork Drop-Off & Pickup 

• Accepted artists will receive drop-off instructions by email after notification 

• Artwork must be dropped off at the Athenaeum Art Center during the designated window 

• Each artwork must be labeled on the back with the artist's name, title, medium, and price (or NFS) 

• Artists are responsible for picking up their work at the designated pickup time. Unclaimed work will be held for 15 days. 

4. Sales & Commission 

• Artists may choose to offer work for sale 

• The AAC does not take a commission on sales made at this event 

• The AAC will only put artists in contact with buyers, artist manage their own sales transactions; the AAC is not responsible for facilitating or processing payments 

5. Liability 

• The Athenaeum Art Center will take reasonable care of submitted works but is not liable for loss or damage 

• Artists are encouraged to photograph their work before drop-off for their records 

• By submitting, artists grant the Athenaeum Art Center permission to photograph and document the exhibition and to use images for non-commercial promotional purposes (social media, newsletters, press), with artist credit 

6. Selection Process 

• All submissions are reviewed by the AAC curatorial team 

• Selection is based on thematic relevance, exhibition-readiness, and available gallery space 

• All artists will be notified of the outcome by the date indicated in the open call 

• The AAC reserves the right to decline work that does not meet guidelines or is not ready for display 

7. Code of Conduct 

• This is a community event welcoming all ages. Submitted work must be appropriate for a general audience. 

• Work that depicts explicit violence or content intended to harm or demean a group will not be accepted. 

• We encourage work that reflects the full complexity of human experience—including difficult or tender truths—approached with care.